Happy Tuesday! It's a hibernation storytime!

Happy Tuesday Everyone! One of the most important survival adaptations humans have developed over eons of evolution is the ability to recognize patterns. Our ancestors saw patterns in the weather, stars, and seasons. Recognizing these and adapting to the changes they bring allowed us to develop tools, farming techniques, and helped us recognize the need for homes, moving us from a nomadic people to a settled one. No I did not say that at story time. However, a pattern that the children can recognize is that some animals hibernate, or go to sleep, during winter. So we explored this concept at storytime today.

The Books:
Bear Snores On by: Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Polar Bear Night by: Lauren Thompson
Hibernation by: Anita Ganeri


What we did:

1.) Action Rhyme: Marco the Polar Bear (Storytime Katie)
Marco the polar bear (hold arms out in a circle)
Was white as the snow (hold arms out wide and proud)
He sat down on the ice (sit down)
near the cold river flow. (hug self and shiver)
"Lunch! I need Lunch!" He said. (Rub Tummy)
I will make a wish. (Rub hands together)
He dipped his hand in the water, (plunge hand down)
and pulled out a fish! (pull hand into the air and wiggle it around)

2.) Parachute play- Lots of fun with the parachute. I put some stuffed animals on the parachute and we pretended that they needed some rocking to fall asleep. we moved them slowly, up and down until they were asleep. I would call out springtime and then we shook the animals on the parachute and bounced them up and down! So many giggles and screams of joy.
POINT OF ADVICE: The parachute is loud and may scare some younger ones. Make sure they have a parent near in case they don't like the air in their faces or loud noises.

3.) Fingerplay: Sleepy Bear (Thumbkin from Storytime Katie)
I Used a popsicle stick puppet of a bear in pajamas for this.
Where is Bear? Where is bear?
Here I am...Here I am
How are you this winter?
Very tired, thank you.
Go to sleep! Go to sleep!
Have the kids shout WAKE UP, BEAR! and do it again.

4.) www.gonoodle.com Brain breaks and body movement
We continued leveling our champion up.We tried two new songs called This or That and Push all the Buttons. One little one was dancing so close to the screen, I thought he would crash into it.

5.) Playtime
a.) Car Painting- I just did this for fun. It would be ideal for a cars or things that go storytime theme. Basically, I just provided paper, toy cars, and paint. The kids "drove" the cars through the paint and onto the paper.

b.) Pla-Doh

c.) Hibernation cave- Another simple idea that ended up being quite fun. Since our theme was hibernation I hung to large blankets over the sides of a big table. I provided some stuffed animals and flashlights for imaginary/exploratory play under the table in the "Hibernation cave". It was clear that the kids grasped the idea of hibernation when they keep calling out "I'm tired! I need to hibernate." Or, Shh! I'm hibernating in my cave!"

Thanks for checking in with us. See you next week!

Mr. Mike